KARACHI: Fifty cases of bomb blasts and militant attacks by proscribed organisations have been prioritised for hearing on a day-to-day basis by the 10 antiterrorism courts in Karachi, it emerged on Saturday.

A list of the 50 cases has been handed over to police to ensure the production of prosecution witnesses in courts.

Sources in the superior judiciary told Dawn that Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, who is also the monitoring judge of the ATCs in Sindh, chaired a meeting which was informed that each ATC in the city picked up five militancy cases for hearing on a day-to-day basis as provided under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 1997.

Of the over 2,600 cases pending disposal before the 19 antiterrorism courts across Sindh, nearly 200 militancy-related cases were prioritised for a day-to-day hearing.

The meeting was also attended by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah of the Sindh High Court, who is also judge in charge of the SHC for the ATCs, member of the inspection team-II Judge Abdullah Channa, judges of the ATCs in Karachi, law secretary, finance secretary, special home secretary and an additional inspector general of police.

The sources said Justice Jamali expressed his satisfaction over the performance of the ATC judges when he was informed that 173 cases were disposed of by the ATCs across the province.

Warning to presiding officers

However, they said, he directed the ATC judges to further improve their performance and warned that the presiding officer whose disposal rate was low would be served with show-cause notice.

The sources said Justice Jamali also directed the provincial authorities to ensure foolproof security for the judges of the ATCs, prosecutors, prosecution witnesses and the IOs appearing in militancy cases. They said the additional deputy inspector general, who represented the Sindh police chief in the meeting, was directed to ensure the production of prosecution witnesses and case property in the trial courts.

They said the SC’s monitoring judge also directed the presiding officers of the ATCs to ensure the examination and cross-examination of the witnesses who were brought to the courts.

Justice Jamali, they said, also asked the provincial authorities to ensure foolproof security of ATC presiding officers, prosecutors, prosecution witnesses and the investigating officers appearing in militancy cases.

For the security of the ATC judges, the additional inspector general of police was directed to depute personnel from the newly created special security arm in the Sindh police.

The sources said Justice Jamali directed the judge in charge of the SHC for ATCs to hold monthly meetings with the presiding officers for the monitoring of the ATCs.

They said the finance secretary was also asked to immediately provide infrastructural facilities for all ATCs in the province.

Besides, the sources said, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah directed the general administration secretary, home secretary and the city commissioner to immediately ensure removal of all abandoned vehicles dumped near the ATCs.

Earlier, an extraordinary meeting of chief justices of all the high courts, chaired by Chief Justice of Pakistan Nasirul Mulk, had decided that terrorism cases would be heard on a daily basis, as provided under the ATA, 1997. Then a meeting of the superior court chief justices was again called on Dec 19, 2014 in Islamabad to take stock of cases pending before the ATCs and discuss strategies for early disposal of the cases pending in courts.

At the meeting, the secretariat of the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan was asked to review the antiterrorism law of 1997 and formulate recommendations for bringing improvement or amendments to the ATA.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2015

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